Family C-7: Maid of the Lake

This family, tracing back to a mare bred in NSW, is still producing stakes winners. Maid of the Lake, whose pedigree was unrecorded but was almost certainly pure thoroughbred, was bred by Captain Bourn Russell at Ravensworth station, near Singleton, NSW. Russell, born in Sussex, was the commander and part-owner of vessels sailing to India and the South Seas. He settled in Sydney in 1826 and became a successful shopkeeper in Maitland. In the 1840s he bought Ravensworth station when its previous owner, Dr. James Bowman, went broke. Bowman had succeeded D'Arcy Wentworth (see Family C - 10) as the principal surgeon in Sydney and had married the wealthy John Macarthur's daughter Mary Isabella, consequently receiving a government land grant on Bowman's Creek. The grant, which he called Ravensworth, along with additional purchased land, encompassed over 12,000 acres. A series of political disasters attributed to his father-in-law led to Bowman's dismissal from government service, and he retired to Ravensworth, where a combination of lack of ranching experience, poor business decisions and the great drought and subsequent economic depression of the 1840s led to his finanical woes.

Maid of the Lake produced the filly Black Swan to the cover of Yattendon, the great 19th century colonial-bred stayer and sire; her breeder is listed as a Dr. Bowker. In the ownership of John Mayo, an emancipated convict who was later a horseman in the Hawkesbury Valley, northwest of Sydney, she ran at Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle and Hawkesbury (at Clarendon). Mayo also owned The Gem (NSB), a winner for him of the Claret Stakes at Hawkesbury, as a juvenile, and later dam of the stakes winning gelded Tallboy, and Prince Imperial, who won the Hawkesbury Grand Handicap in 1885. When Black Swan retired, she bred three recorded foals for Mayo, of which her first foal, her 1883 daughter, The Queen, was the best, winning the eleven furlong STC Queen's Birthday Cup at age five. The others were Black and Blue (1884), a colt by Goldsbrough, and then Master Grand (1887), a black colt by imp. Grandmaster. Black Swan passed into the hands of James N. Hart, and for him bred the filly Lady Trenton (1889), from whom the family descends; followed by Mulwee (1891, by The Drummer); an unnamed colt by the Drummer (1891, died); Swandor (1892) and Warreah (1894), both by imp. Splendor; Bolwarra (1895, gelded), by Grandmaster; Orinda (1897), a filly by Medallion; and The General (1898) by Medallion. Black Swan died in 1900.

The Queen, Lady Trenton and Orinda all bred on; Black Swan's daughter Mulwee died after producing one foal. The Queen produced eleven foals for Samuel Horden before her death in 1907, nine of which were fillies, most of which, including Royal Purple (1895) and Wilton Queen (1896), bred on. Orinda likewise bred on, with several daughters, but this branch, like that of the The Queen's eventually petered out. Lady Trenton, like her dam, was a stayer, and in 1894 won the AJC Sydney Cup over 16 furlongs for James Hart. She was later installed as a broodmare at the Thompson family Widden Stud in the Widden Valley (see Family C-6), where she was an outstanding producer. Her offspring included Strata Florida (1899), winner of the VATC Caulfield Guineas and the VRC October Stakes (10 furlongs); Lord Cardigan (1900), winner of both the Melbourne and Sydney Cups at age three; Dividend (1901), the stallion Simmer's best offsrping and a staying winner of many races, including the 3 mile VRC Champion Stakes twice, the AJC St. Leger, the Cumberland Stakes (24 furlongs), the VRC Essendon Stakes twice, and the 3 mile AJC Plate (24 furlongs). Her daughter, Lady Lybia (1897), was also a good producer, the dam of Melbourne Cup winner Lord Nolan and stakes winner Kingbier, and established a branch of the family still winning today. Another daughter, Lady Rylstone (1904), won the AJC Champagne Stakes and the VRC Oaks, and later produced four daughters that bred on. A third daughter, Lady Capulet (1907), produced the good juvenile Heros and two daughters that bred stakes winners.

Some recent winners from the family, which has had a series of good running mares that were later successful broodmares, descend in tail-female from the great staying mare and Melbourne Cup winner Rainbird (1941). One of these, Misty Vain (1976), a winner of nine races and an outstanding producer, bred ten winners from fifteen foals, including Tennessee Vain, a winner of seven races, including three Group 2 stakes, and dam of three stakes winners in the 1990s --Tennessee Mist, Tennessee Morn, and Tennessee Magic -- and Fair Vanity, the dam of Magic Millions Two Year Old Classic and Gimcrack Stakes winner Mirror Mirror (2003, by Dehere). Adelaide Guineas winner Nina Haraka(1995) is another descendant of Misty Vain. The 2005-06 New Zealand champion broodmare sire, Centaine, is a member of this family.

Notable Descendants